Cutting costs

g4jnw

Im just wanting to compare with others if we are managing to cut back. There are 2 of us in a 3 bedroom house, gas central heating (which we have turned off) The only electric running is the TV (flat screen) and the fridge/freezer during the day. At night all standby's are off and only the fridge freezer is running. We have managed to cut down to 4kwh per day but no lower. We were swapped from our energy supplier as it went bust, to Octopus. I know everyone is in the same boat but as were on a pension i just want to cut things to the bone so that when October comes we wont be in debt, should i be happy with 4kwh?

poppasmurf_bewdley

How do you heat your water?  

QrizB

g4jnw said:

... should i be happy with 4kwh?

4kWh/day isn't bad, for two of you. That's about £1.20 per day plus your standing charge.

pochase

4KWh is very good. 

But more important than to compare to others is what can you afford, and what are you comfortable with? Does not really help if you are the best at saving energy, but you are unhappy with your life style.

Astria

It's a good target, but it seems high for just a TV and fridge/freezer. Do you have an electric shower perhaps?

brewerdave

pochase said:

4KWh is very good. 

But more important than to compare to others is what can you afford, and what are you comfortable with? Does not really help if you are the best at saving energy, but you are unhappy with your life style.

Presumably cold showers, ambient temperatures for clothes washing , no dishwasher etc etc

Gerry1

Astria said:

It's a good target, but it seems high for just a TV and fridge/freezer. Do you have an electric shower perhaps?

Not really.  It corresponds to a base an average load of about 167W which isn't at all unreasonable.  There may well be a few other low consumption devices such as a doorbell, PIR outside light, cordless phone, laptop etc which are easily overlooked, not to mention lighting and the boiler controller (presumably the OP has water heated by gas?).

At present the consumption is almost exactly half that of the the average. household.  Obviously it will increase in the dark winter evenings, but the OP is doing pretty well.

northernsoul

My average is 3kwh per day.
 The boiler is turned on (but not used much apart from washing up and showers) . Plugged in are , the kettle , the oven , the microwave , the fridge , the freezer , the LCD 49inch TV , the router , and the Virgin TiVo box.

The router uses the most at 0.01579kwh during the night which is £37 a year (when doing nothing). Fridge and freezer overnight each use 0.01kwh or £24 a year. I suspect the TiVo is similar to the router.

Surprised yours is 4kwh with less equipment.

Single person though, 2 bedroomed house , washing machine used once a week.

Astria

Gerry1 said:

Astria said:

It's a good target, but it seems high for just a TV and fridge/freezer. Do you have an electric shower perhaps?

Not really.  It corresponds to a base load of about 167W which isn't at all unreasonable.  There may well be a few other low consumption devices such as a doorbell, PIR outside light, cordless phone, laptop etc which are easily overlooked, not to mention lighting and the boiler controller (presumably the OP has water heated by gas?).

At present the consumption is almost exactly half the average.  Obviously it will increase in the dark winter evenings, but the OP is doing pretty well.

I agree that the OP is doing pretty well. I work from home and my electric bill is typically £1/day, which is about the same amount as the OP.

I think I thought of it differently to you, as I thought about a baseline of about 60W for 8 - 10 hours a day, then the rest spread over the remaining 14 - 16 hours. Most of my energy is used between 9am and 1am for example. Between 1am and 9am the load is approximately 60W (can be lower, can spike upto 120W, but on average, 60W)

Gerry1

Astria said:

Gerry1 said:

Astria said:

It's a good target, but it seems high for just a TV and fridge/freezer. Do you have an electric shower perhaps?

Not really.  It corresponds to a base load of about 167W which isn't at all unreasonable.  There may well be a few other low consumption devices such as a doorbell, PIR outside light, cordless phone, laptop etc which are easily overlooked, not to mention lighting and the boiler controller (presumably the OP has water heated by gas?).

At present the consumption is almost exactly half the average.  Obviously it will increase in the dark winter evenings, but the OP is doing pretty well.

I think I thought of it differently to you, as I thought about a baseline of about 60W for 8 - 10 hours a day, then the rest spread over the remaining 14 - 16 hours. Most of my energy is used between 9am and 1am for example. Between 1am and 9am the load is approximately 60W (can be lower, can spike upto 120W, but on average, 60W)

Actually, I think we're in agreement.  Better to say 'average load' so I've edited my post.

g4jnw

Thanks for coming back, maybe i can cut a bit further. I did overlook a few things, my wifes phone charger, a pi3 that runs 24/7 doorbell receiver plugged in. I didn't include gas as we use gas for bath and washing up but im happy with the gas consumption. I also have CCTV so that will be running. apple laptop is only on when charging and i do turn it off at the mains when its not. Microwave is switched off at the plug when not used (don't use it every day) Clock on gas cooker is on all the time. Freesat box is on 24/7 as its used for recording so that must stay on. I haven't an in home monitor due to changing from smet1 to smet2 and it not working (I have asked Octopus to send me a new one, its on order but no supply due to chips etc) So can only look at use daily. Lots to think about - thanks all. Oh yes and router, remote phone (2) I need an IHD to monitor properly and turn stuff off.